“That’s not enough for you, and we both know it. You can’t tell me you don’t feel for me. I can see it. Every time I’m with you it shows in your eyes, more each time.” He was handling it badly, but saw no other course open but straight ahead. The closer he came, the further away she drew. “Damn it, Summer, I’ve waited long enough. If my timing’s not as perfect as I wanted it to be, it can’t be helped.”

“Timing?” She dragged a hand through her hair. “What are you talking about? You’ve waited?” Dropping her hands, she began to pace the room. “Has this been one of your long-term plans, all neatly thought out, all meticulously outlined? Oh, I can see it.” She let out a trembling breath and whirled back to him. It no longer made any difference to her if she were unreasonable. “Did you sit in your office and go over your strategy point by point? Was this the setting up, the looking for flaws, the following through?”

“Don’t be ridiculous—”

“Ridiculous?” she tossed back. “No, I think not. You’d play the game well—disarming, confusing, charming, supportive. Patience, you’d have a lot of that. Did you wait until you thought I was at my most vulnerable?” Her breath was heaving now, and the words were tumbling out on each one. “Let me tell you something, Blake, I’m not a hotel chain you can acquire by waiting until the market’s ripe.”

In a slanted way she’d been killingly accurate. And the accuracy put him on the defensive. “Damn it, Summer, I want to marry you, not acquire you.”

“The words are often one and the same, to my way of thinking. Your plan’s a little off the mark this time, Blake. No deal. Now, I want you to leave me alone.”

“We have a hell of a lot of talking to do.”

“No, we have no talking to do, not about this. I work for you, for the term of the contract. That’s all.”

“Damn the contract.” He took her by the shoulders, shaking her once in frustration. “And damn you for being so stubborn. I love you. That’s not something you can brush aside as if it doesn’t exist.”

To their mutual surprise, her eyes filled abruptly, poignantly. “Leave me alone,” she managed as the first tears spilled out. “Leave me completely alone.”

The tears undermined him as her temper never would have done. “I can’t do that.” But he released her when he wanted to hold her. “I’ll give you some time, maybe we both need time, but we’ll have to come back to this.”

“Just go away.” She never allowed tears in front of anyone. Though she tried to dash them away, others fell quickly. “Go away.” On the repetition she turned from him, holding herself stiff until she heard the click of the door.

She looked around, and though he was gone, he was everywhere. Dropping to the couch, she let herself weep and wished she were anywhere else.